One of the best books on leadership I’ve read is Leading from the Jumpseat, by former RAF (Royal Air Force) pilot, Peter Docker. Peter uses his experience as a squadron leader having the responsibility to train novice pilots to safely and competently take the controls and fly on their own. This responsibility necessarily moved him from the captain’s seat to the jumpseat, where he had to lead in ways quite different from the command and control leadership many assume is typical of the military.
Leading from the jumpseat is a metaphor, according to Docker, “about the journey we take to get to the point where we hand off control to other people, who are able to continue to move forward without us.” It is “a higher form of leadership, since it is not about building and retaining our own individual power.” It is about recognizing and nurturing the potential of others whereby they become leaders in their own right.
In order to do this, Docker suggests that we, as leaders, must first lead ourselves. To do this, we must identify what really matters to us. This requires introspection regarding our personal purpose, mission, and values; what Docker defines as the articulation of “our stand.” When we have clearly defined our stand, “we can tap into the energy and drive to bring new things into existence.” This stand provides the cause to which we want to invite the participation of others, those whom we will lead from the jumpseat. The stand forms the basis for the simple message that bridges the gap between the leader and each team member, as they respectively personalize and internalize it.
A clearly articulated stand, however, is just the beginning of Docker’s insights. He identifies a critical leadership issue that I have witnessed countless times over my years as a coach to CEOs, business owners, and other leaders. Most who occupy an important leadership position have arrived there as a result of mastery or expertise in their field. There is a natural tendency to bask in a bit of self-congratulation when this ascension occurs, and if they’re not careful, they buy into a sense of omniscience. They forget that mastery in one dimension doesn’t anoint us as the best and brightest in everything. They become blind to their need for the efforts and expertise of others. And even if they are wise enough to recognize that there are things they don’t know, they are supremely confident in what they do know. And that makes it very hard for them to let go of the things where they have expertise, those competencies that led to their leadership role.
As Docker states, “What tends to happen is we continue trying to lead as a subject matter expert, or we end up micromanaging and getting in other people’s way.” We fail to ask important questions, being preoccupied with knowing all the answers. We fail to listen, and we fail to trust in our people's abilities and training to figure things out on their own. And most critically, we forget that our most important job is to keep our enterprise focused on retaining a clear picture of where we are heading. The leader’s main job is to channel the best efforts of the team toward the goal, not to make those efforts himself or herself.
Docker suggests that this critical leadership challenge can be overcome if we, as leaders, adopt an attitude of humble confidence. The humility required comes from a personal sense that we cannot succeed without the best efforts of others, and that by facilitating their growth and development, they may even transcend our own mastery of the job at hand. This means that we must willingly work toward the development of their expertise, and see that endeavor as one of our most urgent and important functions. It also means that we are willing to be challenged, to gratefully entertain the best thinking, questions, and efforts of our people. And it means that as they show their readiness to take the controls, we get out of the way so that we can focus our attention on the bigger vision of the enterprise.
Docker’s message is based on three key principles:
1. You must believe in the potential of others. It is about you, of course. You must set the vision, the purpose, the mission, and values–your stand. But you must recognize that you can’t achieve that vision without the best efforts of others. They will need training to reach the competencies you require, but you must recognize that this will require you to ultimately relinquish the captain’s seat–and move into the jumpseat.
2. You must create a culture of belonging. That culture begins with the clear articulation of your stand: your purpose, mission, and values. You need to recognize that your communication of this begins on day one for each team member–and never ends. You must be the chief evangelist for the stand, and you must actively invite the participation, personalization, and internalization of the stand with everyone. You must energetically invite them to belong, to become part of that cause. Docker asserts that belonging creates shared and individual responsibility and responsiveness, and that responsibility and responsiveness provide the critical foundation for effective delegation,
3. At some point (whether we like it or not) we all must step back and let others lead. If our enterprises are to survive our days in the captain’s seat, we must develop others to sit in that seat. Furthermore, the extreme challenges of leadership today are a virtual guarantee of burnout if we don’t develop and engage the best efforts of others. Docker shares the mantra of the RAF as they counseled their new squadron leaders: Delete, Delegate, or Die! Delete means that we must eliminate those time wasters that aren’t important or have no value, Delegate means get your team members in the captain’s seat as soon as they are ready. Hopefully, deletion and delegation will avert that slow and steady death of sinking under the extraordinary weight of doing everything yourself!
Docker leaves us with the question, What, as a leader, will you leave behind?
I highly recommend this book to all leaders!
Rich Tyson, President, CEObuilder
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